Crossmodal Correspondence between Music and Ambient Color Is Mediated by Emotion

Abstract

Abstract The quality of a concert hall primarily depends on its acoustics. But does visual input also have an impact on musical enjoyment? Does the color of ambient lighting modulate the perceived music quality? And are certain colors perceived to fit better than others with a given music piece? To address these questions, we performed three within-subjects experiments. We carried out two pretests to select four music pieces differing in tonality and genre, and 14 lighting conditions of varying hue, brightness, and saturation. In the main experiment, we applied a fully crossed repeated-measures design. Under each of the four lighting conditions, participants rated the musical variables ‘Harmonic’, ‘Powerful’, ‘Gloomy’, ‘Lively’ and overall liking of the music pieces, as well as the perceived fit of music and lighting. Subsequently, participants evaluated music and lighting separately by rating the same variables as before, as well as their emotional impact (valence, arousal, dominance). We found that music and lighting being similarly rated in terms of valence and arousal in the unimodal conditions were judged to match better when presented together. Accordingly, tonal (atonal) music was rated to fit better with weakly saturated (highly saturated) colors. Moreover, some characteristics of the lighting were carried over to music. That is, just as red lighting was rated as more powerful than green and blue lighting, music was evaluated to be more powerful under red compared to green and blue lighting. We conclude that listening to music is a multisensory process enriched by impressions from the visual domain.

Autoren

Pia Hauck
Christoph von Castell
Heiko Hecht

DOI

10.1163/22134808-bja10077

eISSN

2213-4808

ISSN

2213-4794

Ausgabe der Veröffentlichung

5

Zeitschrift

Multisensory Research

Paginierung

407 - 446

Datum der Veröffentlichung

2022

Status

Published

Herausgeber

Brill

Herausgeber URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22134808-bja10077

Datum der Datenerfassung

2022

Titel

Crossmodal Correspondence between Music and Ambient Color Is Mediated by Emotion

Ausgabe der Zeitschrift

35

Data source: Crossref

Abstract

The quality of a concert hall primarily depends on its acoustics. But does visual input also have an impact on musical enjoyment? Does the color of ambient lighting modulate the perceived music quality? And are certain colors perceived to fit better than others with a given music piece? To address these questions, we performed three within-subjects experiments. We carried out two pretests to select four music pieces differing in tonality and genre, and 14 lighting conditions of varying hue, brightness, and saturation. In the main experiment, we applied a fully crossed repeated-measures design. Under each of the four lighting conditions, participants rated the musical variables 'Harmonic', 'Powerful', 'Gloomy', 'Lively' and overall liking of the music pieces, as well as the perceived fit of music and lighting. Subsequently, participants evaluated music and lighting separately by rating the same variables as before, as well as their emotional impact (valence, arousal, dominance). We found that music and lighting being similarly rated in terms of valence and arousal in the unimodal conditions were judged to match better when presented together. Accordingly, tonal (atonal) music was rated to fit better with weakly saturated (highly saturated) colors. Moreover, some characteristics of the lighting were carried over to music. That is, just as red lighting was rated as more powerful than green and blue lighting, music was evaluated to be more powerful under red compared to green and blue lighting. We conclude that listening to music is a multisensory process enriched by impressions from the visual domain.

Addresses

Department of Psychology, General Experimental Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Wallstr. 3, 55122 Mainz, Germany.

Autoren

Pia Hauck
Christoph von Castell
Heiko Hecht

DOI

10.1163/22134808-bja10077

eISSN

2213-4808

Externe Identifier

PubMed Identifier: 35985652

Open access

false

ISSN

2213-4794

Ausgabe der Veröffentlichung

5

Zeitschrift

Multisensory research

Schlüsselwörter

Humans
Acoustic Stimulation
Emotions
Auditory Perception
Arousal
Music

Sprache

eng

Medium

Electronic

Online publication date

2022

Paginierung

407 - 446

Datum der Veröffentlichung

2022

Status

Published

Datum der Datenerfassung

2022

Titel

Crossmodal Correspondence between Music and Ambient Color Is Mediated by Emotion.

Sub types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Journal Article

Ausgabe der Zeitschrift

35

Data source: Europe PubMed Central

Abstract

The quality of a concert hall primarily depends on its acoustics. But does visual input also have an impact on musical enjoyment? Does the color of ambient lighting modulate the perceived music quality? And are certain colors perceived to fit better than others with a given music piece? To address these questions, we performed three within-subjects experiments. We carried out two pretests to select four music pieces differing in tonality and genre, and 14 lighting conditions of varying hue, brightness, and saturation. In the main experiment, we applied a fully crossed repeated-measures design. Under each of the four lighting conditions, participants rated the musical variables 'Harmonic', 'Powerful', 'Gloomy', 'Lively' and overall liking of the music pieces, as well as the perceived fit of music and lighting. Subsequently, participants evaluated music and lighting separately by rating the same variables as before, as well as their emotional impact (valence, arousal, dominance). We found that music and lighting being similarly rated in terms of valence and arousal in the unimodal conditions were judged to match better when presented together. Accordingly, tonal (atonal) music was rated to fit better with weakly saturated (highly saturated) colors. Moreover, some characteristics of the lighting were carried over to music. That is, just as red lighting was rated as more powerful than green and blue lighting, music was evaluated to be more powerful under red compared to green and blue lighting. We conclude that listening to music is a multisensory process enriched by impressions from the visual domain.

Date of acceptance

2022

Autoren

Pia Hauck
Christoph von Castell
Heiko Hecht

Autoren-URL

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35985652

DOI

10.1163/22134808-bja10077

eISSN

2213-4808

Ausgabe der Veröffentlichung

5

Zeitschrift

Multisens Res

Schlüsselwörter

Acoustic Stimulation
Arousal
Auditory Perception
Emotions
Humans
Music

Sprache

eng

Country

Netherlands

Paginierung

407 - 446

Datum der Veröffentlichung

2022

Status

Published online

Datum, an dem der Datensatz öffentlich gemacht wurde

2022

Titel

Crossmodal Correspondence between Music and Ambient Color Is Mediated by Emotion.

Sub types

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Ausgabe der Zeitschrift

35

Data source: PubMed

Crossmodal Correspondence between Music and Ambient Color Is Mediated by Emotion

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